But a hunter stepped into her path, helmet open. A female hunter. This lady lifted a gun and let out a shot that only missed because Suiko managed to divert it. The next shots hit their mark but were aimed at her own people.

  “Enough!” she shouted, and Suiko had turned to see that two of the lizard people laid dead on the floor.

  One of the remaining knelt there, trembling, while the other two moved to grab Bloodsong. In the distance, I could see Basty vanishing into the shadows as he ran along the ceiling back towards us.

  Suiko acted fast, but the only way for Bloodsong to escape was the route in the opposite direction to us.

  “We’ll catch up,” Suiko said, diverting more shots as the hunter cursed. Just then, the tank showed up, and she gave it the command to pursue.

  “Fucking hurry,” I told Suiko, then focused on my own vision, where Koharu was glancing around nervously at the shouting and sounds of fighting.

  Lizzy had a door open and hissed for us to come over. We did, to see someone chained up to the wall in an X fashion. From the silhouette alone, I could see to my relief that it wasn’t one of ours. It was a man—or had been. From what I could gather, this wasn’t some torture situation or anything like that; there was a table of leaves and fruits nearby, along with a platter of freshly cut meat. Someone had been feasting here.

  With that knowledge, I turned back to the man and nearly puked. Not a human man, exactly, but as close as I had seen among monsters. All that separated him from me was a line of horns emerging from his forehead, and pointy ears on the top of his head. Then I noticed the wings on his arms, like Kinara’s. Maybe half-bat, half-something else? The meat had clearly come from him, as evidenced by the missing chunks of his body. One part in particular made me cringe.

  “It’s a delicacy for them,” Void said, stepping into the room and seeing where my eyes were focused.

  I quickly looked away, glad to have Amabie there at my side, as my legs felt wobbly. She held me up, and I took a deep breath. A big mistake, as the room smelled of blood.

  The vomit came, then, and I turned, almost catching it, before thinking better and letting it go over a leafy plate.

  “They eat it raw?” Lizzy asked, disturbingly sounding more curious than grossed out.

  “Exactly,” a new voice said, and we turned to see a hunter emerging from a side door. Based on the stench and hole in the floor behind him, he was emerging from the bathroom. The hunter had no armor on, and I only even knew it was a hunter because I’d seen their faces before. His body was no different—disgusting, ridged flesh. Gray, like it was rotten, and pulled taut over muscles and bulging veins. Hanging between his legs was an elephant’s trunk of the most disgusting cock I’d seen in my life, disfigured and curved, with a chunk missing—not that my eyes lingered, but one notices such things. Now that I’d seen this, I noticed other chunks of his body missing, and had to wonder if this was related to some disgusting lovemaking ritual.

  “I know this one,” Void said, taking a step toward him with her staff raised, skull eyes glowing to illuminate the disgusting creature. “Third in command, by the name of…”

  The hunter revealed his pointed teeth and snarled, bracing as if about to run and sound an alarm, or maybe attack Void.

  “...Trean,” Void said, and the glow intensified. Trean went to his knees, hands at his throat as if he were being choked. To my disgust, his disgusting cock went erect at this as if he were getting off on the pain.

  He lunged for her, but she laughed, stepping back, and let him fall, face down, writhing.

  “Trean, you should have done a better job finishing off a certain meal by the name of Layarna. She was on death’s doorstep when she found me, but I made sure to learn all I could of you, to be ready for this moment.”

  “Wait,” I said, stepping up, sword appearing in my hand. “Make a deal.”

  Void snarled but caught on. “My friend here would like to end your suffering,” she told the hunter. “If you’d be so kind as to direct us toward some of his companions. Otherwise, I’d be more than happy to continue to have my revenge, my way.”

  “Is that how it works for his kind?” the hunter asked, snarling, then laughed. “Here, torture is part of life.”

  I tried to ignore the half-eaten man still visible in my peripheral vision. Had he been alive while they were going at him? This disgusting hunter was pissing me off, and my vision from Suiko showed she and Bloodsong were having trouble, cornered by the female hunter and now the tank.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, turning to the others in the room to see if they had any ideas.

  All looked equally as disgusted as I, and without ideas. But it was the small, dark form of Basty, now back with us, that gave me hope.

  “I have another idea of how to get answers out of him,” I said, and held out my hand for Basty. The little guy ran over and jumped up into my hand, and we turned on the hunter. “Last chance.”

  He sneered, showing off his nasty, pointed teeth. Worse, there were red strands of flesh stuck in there, and the stench from the bathroom was getting to me.

  “Suiko needs our help,” I muttered. “Let’s make this quick.”

  “In that case, I think I’ll…” Void headed for the bathroom.

  “Seriously, in there?” Koharu asked.

  Void shrugged and disappeared within.

  Koharu followed, doing a little dance at the door, and also shrugged. “I’m next. You go ahead and torture the jackass.”

  I met the hunter’s gaze. Seeing actual worry there, I realized he must’ve caught on to what Basty was. As I’d told the others, we didn’t have time to play around, so I went to it. I mentally connected with Basty and let him go to town.

  What followed was crazier than I could have expected. I went in through him, at first getting a barrage of images that I assumed were glimpses of this man’s life. First, of him out in a canyon that glowed yellow, searching for something, it seemed. Then he was on it, what looked like a battered spaceship. That was new to me. Then he was chasing someone, in full armor, catching them and undoing his helmet to tear their throat out with his teeth. More images of feasting, hunting, and a room full of hunters in what appeared to be some sort of celebratory feast.

  That’s when Basty struck, hitting him with terror—the other hunters transforming into demonic beasts, converging on him, eating through metal, flesh, and bone. As he lay there in his mind being tormented, I checked back in with Suiko to see that she and Bloodsong had managed to move out of the way as the attacks came, opening a way for them to escape.

  Back with Basty, the hunter was growling, the torture not doing much to put him off, so Basty had resorted to something else. The hunter’s mind put him in a room full of stuffed animals, the “It’s a Small World” song playing over and over; when Basty wanted to take it to the next level, a baby started wailing.

  This was torture even to me, so I backed out, shaking my head to clear the image. Three of the lizard men were in pursuit of Bloodsong and Suiko, leaving the Tank to come back our way.

  “Shit, hurry,” I said, pointing at the door. “Close it, we’re going out another way.”

  The hunter sat up with a gasp, pointing right back out that way. “Three of them are two doors down, on the left.”

  “That so?” Void, having emerged from the bathroom, asked, then nodded to me.

  “The rest?” I demanded.

  “One was taken away just now, I don’t know where. The others, across to the other side.”

  “That’ll do,” Void said, and motioned for me with a finger across the neck.

  The hunter turned on me, looking like he was going to leap and attack, so I moved swiftly. One solid strike sent his head rolling.

  “The tank’s coming,” I said, glancing over to see the Koharu exiting the bathroom. “If we’re going that way, it’s all out there.”

  “Fine by me,” Devasla said. “I don’t know if I can take another second of this sneaking around bullshit.”

  “Fine by me, too,” Koharu said. “I want to bust some skulls open, after seeing this room.”

  The thudding started again, and it was coming right for us.

  “Void?” I asked.

  She eyed me, then the others, and said, “If they know they’re under attack, getting the others on the far side might be tough.”

  “Half of us could go for them, the other half for those here,” Devasla noted. “I could take on the tank while Ferris finds the three here, the rest of you head over for the others.”

  I nodded. “Bloodsong and Suiko will join me, and we’ll come find you. Best place to meet, if it comes to that, is out by the river we followed in here. This side.”

  “Agreed,” Koharu said, going with Void and Amabie to one side of the door.

  On the other side, I stood with Devasla and Lizzy.

  “I’m staying with you,” Lizzy said.

  No protesting sounded from me. I nodded, listening to that thudding, then said, “Now!”

  Devasla grinned and charged out. Explosions followed—fire, lava, and plasma blasts. Rounds fired from the other side, and I took two deep breaths before going as well. I ran out, Basty leaping up to my shoulder as I sprinted to the right, to find the door with the others behind it. As I went, I glimpsed Devasla holding the tank's arms up, rounds blowing the ceiling apart, while Devasla dripped lava down onto her opponent. It sizzled through metal and left the creature within to scream.

  A shot ricocheted off the stone above, hitting me. My shield went up, and I whooped as I dove out of the way of more shots. Basty fell but was up and pulling me out of the way. Once I was clear of the hallway, I jumped back up and checked the doors, counting. There it was. I snatched up Basty, put him around my neck, and used my vibration power to send the door off its hinges.

  Within was another feast room, someone squirming. Not just anyone, but Milrae! She was tied up as the man had been, growling, gagged. A slurping sounded, and I turned to the wall on my right, holding a sight I would likely never forget. Ahlaksiz, also tied, with a hunter pressed up against her. He turned, blood dripping down his chin, and I gagged at the large bite taken out of her side.

  “Motherfucker,” I said, charging at him and calling my sword. I used every bit of bat sense and shadow telegraphing I could muster, telling Basty to hit him mentally while I went for the physical. Right through the throat, my sword sliced and twisted, so half his neck was gone, head falling sideways.

  Lizzy was quick to take the gag from Ahlaksiz’s mouth, while I helped unchain her first, then Milrae.

  There were other chains there, and against the far wall, a dead hunter that we hadn’t killed.

  “Took you long enough,” Ahlaksiz said, cringing, trying to hold back the pain.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, caressing her face, then looking around desperately for anything I could do to help her.

  Milrae threw her arms around me, let out a growl, then helped Ahlaksiz as she said, “Chirop was here, but they took her. I think to the head hunter of this fortress.”

  Kinara! If we could get her, she could help heal Ahlaksiz. Then, we’d have to get her back home, to our mansion, as fast as possible. I was all about saving Jalee’s sister, but not if it meant losing the others along the way. Now that Ahlaksiz was bleeding at my side, it felt more real than ever.

  “We have to get to her, but first…” I checked in with Suiko, pinging to show her our location.

  She was close and showed me Devasla pounding the tank with a fist through the middle, pulling out the guts. Devasla smiled their way as she moved on, only to be shot in the back by the female hunter.

  “Shit, I need to help,” I said.

  “And the others?” Lizzy asked, reminding me that we might need the help of the three we’d just sent off.

  “I…” Shit, they were probably going into a trap. I had no doubt the hunter had meant for this to be a trap, too, maybe not knowing that another group had already taken Kinara. Only Jalee was unaccounted for, but it was possible they were holding others out there.

  “We won’t be able to catch up,” I said, pointing to the door. “Help Suiko, then we’ll go after them.”

  “Go,” Ahlaksiz said. “Leave me.”

  “Not a fucking chance,” I said, and Milrae helped me get her out. We emerged to find Koharu—back with us now—and a wounded Devasla holding their own against the hunter, but red lights started blaring as an alarm sounded.

  “Ah, welcome!” The female hunter smiled wide, seeing us. “What a treat this is!”

  Suiko blocked more shots while Bloodsong ran to her mother, yelping at the sight of her side. She took over while I moved to fight the hunter, but a wall lowered out of the way, revealing more lizard men, another hunter, and a floating ball. It reminded me of the drones, except it was white and had an eerie, blue glow.

  “What…?” I started, eyeing it as it moved out ahead of the hunter. Then, as she laughed, it pulled Suiko inside.

  “No!” I shouted, but instead of moving out to attack, the hunter caught the ball while the lizard men charged out to intercept. I slashed down two of them, Koharu taking the third, then the wall closed again—hunter and ball with Suiko—gone behind it. My shout of anguish echoed, even louder than the shot that hit my shield and left it shattered. The shield’s cooldown time meant I’d be vulnerable, so I had to duck back, shouting for them to get through that wall.

  “That won’t be happening.” The female hunter’s voice carried through from wherever she was. Even the ceiling was moving aside, drones flying over us. What stood out most, though, was the one man floating in their midst, hands out with the full spectrum of colors swirling around him.

  I only had one option, as risky as I knew it to be.

  “Brace yourself,” I told the others. “We never should have come here, but since we are...”

  “Don’t do it,” Ahlaksiz said, clearly guessing what I was about to do.

  There was no way I could let them get eaten. And if the head hunter already had Kinara, her chances of living were dwindling by the second.

  I had the mask out and on my face in a flash, calling out, “Akame! We need you now!”

  “No…” the female hunter muttered, and at least that came as a relief.

  What followed certainly wasn’t, as I became one with Akame and the shadows of the mask.

  12

  Power consumed me. My first thought was that I had made a horrible mistake. My second was that nothing could fuck with me—I was a GOD! Killing the one hunter for what he had done to Ahlaksiz hadn’t been enough. This was true retribution time.

  The female hunter was backing up, even turning to run, shouting something I couldn’t make out. I rose to be level with the drones, and even as they unleashed, I was absorbing their shots into my shadow and throwing it all back at them in bursts. At first, it was glorious, like opening a bag of M&Ms and pouring them down your throat all at once. I could even sense Lizzy, and for a second as I watched enemy drones and two of the tank beings fall at my power, it was like we were one, as if we were making love from a distance, and my darkness was pure ecstasy raining down bukkake to smite my foes.

  One might get the sense that I was fucked up, and that would be accurate. This power, as I’d been warned, was overwhelming me, so much so that I didn’t even realize I’d left the team behind and was darting through corridors, knocking out walls, and completely consuming every one of those lizard men and women I could find. My energy surged, strength and speed making me feel invincible. In a sense, I was worse than the hunters, a lizard child might have thought if they’d seen me.

  I tried to regain control, to pull myself back, but when I did, I felt pulled in two directions at once. Completely horrible bliss on the one side, and pain and confusion on the other.

  “Ferris!” Suiko called out for me, voice distant from inside that ball, and even Basty was trying to connect.

  Lizzy was there in the darkness, swimming around me, laughing hysterically, then suddenly on me and we were at the top of a mountain, fucking like animals. But not at all animals, because we weren’t two physical beings fucking—rather two forces of darkness, exploding out and in, vanishing and retaking shape, and the whole time I was watching as if outside of my body completely.

  “ENOUGH!” I shouted, trying to fight it, realizing my error in unleashing the monster that was the mask. Or was the monster me?

  I cried, I laughed… I screamed.

  Then I simply floated, Lizzy back there on the mountain top in a state of unconscious ecstasy.

  Finally, I gave myself over to the power of the mask, realizing there was no way I could fight it. It was then that a face appeared to me, and I had no doubt who this was—Akame. The one whose power was fused with the mask, and who I had now become one with, in a sense.

  I was staring into a lake, the face on my own floating body, inches from the surface.

  “There you are,” she said and grinned wickedly. “I see you’ve been having fun with my little toy.”

  “I only wanted to save my friends,” I replied.

  The mask’s expression faltered, but the smile returned. “Friends, or lovers? Isn’t it true you wanted to impress them, to show them you could be the big man, the savior who could shelter them, take them home to ravage?”

  “No…” The response was meek, as I was overcome with worry for the ladies, so I tried again. “I love them, yes, but this isn’t about me.”

  She laughed, this time a cruel laugh. “Don’t lie to me—I am you; I can see into your mind, into your soul, even. Everything you’ve done since unleashing my power has been all you, only amplified because I allowed it to be so.”

  I considered this, wondering what it meant. But no, whatever she said, I knew my true self.

  “Did a primal part of me want to tear that place up, kill as many of them as I could? Yes! After what they’d done, of course I did. Did I lust after Lizzy? Who wouldn’t! But that doesn’t mean either was what I really wanted. We all have thoughts, cravings, yearnings… It’s whether we act on them or not that decides our character.”